TMLOST 18

Chapter 18

The Imperial Princess of the Kingdom of Veronica (1)

At the same time Aaron received the letter, inside Marquis Paolo’s mansion—

“Damn it.”

Livius roughly loosened his necktie and spoke in a low voice filled with suppressed anger.

After the day Aaron and Livius faced each other, the Emperor had forbidden Livius from entering the Imperial Palace. Even when he asked for the reason, the only answer he received was:

“It is His Majesty the Emperor’s command.”

Even today, despite saying he had come because of Crown Prince Llewellyn’s invitation, he was denied entry and had returned to the mansion.

He had thought everything was almost settled, yet an unexpected variable had appeared.

“It will be difficult to change His Majesty’s mind. Once he pushes something forward, he continues to the end.”

At Llewellyn’s emotionless voice from behind him, Livius stopped glaring at the wall and let out a short breath. His pride had been wounded so badly that he had almost forgotten Llewellyn had come back to the mansion with him.

“Did His Majesty say anything to Your Highness?”

After calming himself, Livius turned around to face Llewellyn. While politely offering him a seat, he asked carefully. He needed to enter the Imperial Palace somehow so he could persuade Elia, but since he could not, his irritation only continued to grow.

“He did not tell me much personally, however…”

“However…?”

The fact that Llewellyn paused meant there was definitely something more. Livius clenched and unclenched his fists while waiting anxiously for the rest of his words.

“I heard they are planning to hold a wedding between Aaron Albert, the First Knight Commander of the Kingdom of Veronica, and my sister.”

“A marriage with that man?”

It was that very man who had appeared just as he was about to crush Elia’s strange defiance. From the moment Aaron interfered in that situation, Livius had disliked him.

Was Aaron the reason Elia rejected him? Did she believe she had someone to rely on?

“I told you before. Aaron Albert. My sister requested to meet him. When I saw His Majesty approve it, I told you to try getting along with her better, did I not?”

Livius tightly shut his eyes before opening them again at Llewellyn’s scolding tone, which practically blamed everything on him.

“You should have handled it better.”

‘He should have told me this information sooner instead of waiting until I asked if there was anything important.’

Even if they had agreed not to discuss important matters face-to-face unless necessary, this was a huge problem for his plans.

“Ha… Elia once said she was curious about the Kingdom of Veronica, so I did not pay much attention to him. I never imagined he would become an obstacle.”

Livius harshly brushed back his hair. One irritating matter after another piled up, making his anger grow.

“So even after losing her memories, her true nature remains the same. Livius, I’m impressed you even remembered that.”

Llewellyn sounded genuinely surprised.

He knew Livius had devoted effort toward Elia, but he thought it was only an act on the surface. He had believed Elia was simple and affectionate enough to fall for Livius easily, but apparently winning her heart had not been that easy.

“Half the conversations I had with Elia to gain her favor were about the Kingdom of Veronica, so I suppose it stayed in my mind.”

Remembering those exhausting conversations, Livius slowly shook his head.

Even though Elia had lost her memories, he still thought Elia was fundamentally the same person, so he had not considered her interest in Veronica important. Until now, it had never interfered with his plans.

But apparently, it was not something he should have ignored so lightly.

To think he had made such a mistake.

“If you had approached her the same way you did in the beginning, things might have turned out differently. You became too impatient.”

At Llewellyn’s regretful click of the tongue, irritation rose inside Livius for a moment. But he knew ruining his relationship with the Crown Prince would not benefit him at all.

Using Elia was no longer possible, so now he needed to focus on pleasing Llewellyn instead.

“How long was I supposed to patiently invest effort when she could die at any moment? Back then, she was the most likely candidate to inherit the throne, so I merely humored her to some extent.”

Honestly, to Livius, Llewellyn had always been only the second-best option.

He had approached Elia because the benefits he would gain if she inherited the throne were enormous. But the one who reached out first had been Llewellyn.

“Surely you do not intend to spend your whole life following behind my sister?”

Livius still remembered the way Llewellyn had approached him as though he understood exactly what he desired.

And Livius had immediately taken his hand.

Llewellyn probably believed he was controlling Livius simply because he had offered his hand first, but Livius thought differently.

From the beginning, Llewellyn had merely carried out the information and plans Livius subtly fed him. Livius only pretended to obediently follow his orders.

As long as he acted like a loyal subordinate, Llewellyn would fulfill his plans on his own.

“Since it is His Majesty’s decision, there is no possibility that the marriage with Aaron Albert will be canceled. We will need to change our strategy.”

“I will obey your command.”

Livius placed his right hand over his chest and smiled gently toward Llewellyn.

Manipulating Llewellyn, who was blinded by his desire to remove Elia and become Emperor, was incredibly easy for Livius.

“Tomorrow is already the wedding ceremony. Time really passes quickly.”

“It does.”

Elia nodded at her nanny’s words while drinking the flower tea she was already sick and tired of.

The Empire’s marriage laws were extremely restrictive and difficult to understand. Even the reason she was drinking this flower tea was because of one of those laws.

Since the Rier Empire was blessed by flowers, people were required to purify their body and mind through flower tea before marriage.

In addition, from the moment the wedding date was decided until the ceremony itself, contact between the couple was forbidden, meaning they could not communicate at all.

Elia wondered what Aaron was thinking, but as always, his choice was probably for the sake of his one and only liege, Lotte.

There were many other ridiculous laws as well, but since the author of this novel had created them that way, there was nothing she could do.

“It seems your complexion has improved recently.”

The moment Elia took a sip of the flower tea with a miserable expression, the head maid standing near the door suddenly spoke in a subtle tone.

Whether she had intended for Elia to spit out the tea or not, Elia barely managed to swallow it.

Since she had not collapsed or coughed blood lately, her condition did seem to be improving slightly. However, she still did not feel a major difference yet.

Even before living inside Elia’s body, she had never been healthy, so she barely even remembered what a normal life felt like.

“Does it?”

“Yes. To someone like me who has watched over Your Highness for a long time, it certainly appears that way. It is a good thing.”

The head maid’s gaze felt uncomfortable, but Elia deliberately ignored it.

She already knew the head maid reported everything to Llewellyn, so there was no doubt he had heard this before she even spoke to Elia.

Still, from Elia’s own perspective, her body had not improved enough to make her think:

“I have overcome the illness!”

“If Your Highness overcomes your illness completely, we should hold a grand celebration party.”

“That would be nice. It sounds like a dream.”

Elia answered as though such a thing would never happen, and the head maid finally fell silent.

Perhaps she had expected Elia to innocently agree that her condition was improving.

Pretending not to notice, Elia took another sip of flower tea. It did not seem like the head maid intended to leave until the cup was completely empty.

Elia let out a quiet sigh and looked outside the window.

Nothing was better for clearing distracting thoughts than staring at natural scenery.

‘Should I say it is thanks to Vane? It’s strange how my condition has improved since that day.’

The fact that even the head maid noticed her improving condition was a good sign, but there were too many people who would not welcome that news.

As support for Llewellyn grew stronger, the illness of Imperial Princess Elia improving was naturally not good news to his supporters.

Still, Elia could not tell whether her incurable illness was truly healing or whether she merely felt temporarily better, so she could not confidently believe she had escaped death completely.

‘And in this situation, I’m marrying Aaron.’

She worried whether Lotte and Aaron would dislike her because the marriage had been forced on them.

After all, marrying an Imperial Princess who could die at any moment was hardly something to celebrate.

If Lotte and Aaron only ended up disliking her more, then her Cupid plan would fail before it even began.

‘Please let nothing go wrong.’

Elia finished the remaining flower tea in one gulp and pushed the teacup toward her nanny.

At least tomorrow, she would finally be free from this awful flower tea.